Friday, July 28, 2017

The aviation ministry and the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (Dipam) will on Friday present to a ministerial panel their recommendation on the amount of debt that needs to be written off Air India’s books to make the state-owned airline attractive to potential investors, a government official said on condition of anonymity. Dealing with Air India’s debt of just under Rs50,000 crore is a key step—the most critical one, according to some analysts—in the government’s plan to divest part or all of its stake in the airline. Friday’s meeting is the second of the ministerial panel tasked to speed up this process. Apart from the Tata group and IndiGo, private equity funds KKR and Co. Lp and Warburg Pincus Llc have expressed interest in acquiring Air India’s businesses, Mint reported on 24 July. The ministerial panel comprises finance minister Arun Jaitley, aviation minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju, transport minister Nitin Gadkari, railway minister Suresh Prabhu and power minister Piyush Goyal. The panel met first on 21 July. Gadkari did not attend that meeting as he was travelling.
28/07/17 Dalal Street Asia